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NATIONAL UNITY 



Address before the Alumni of Howard College, 
Birmingham, Alabama 

June 3, 1919 



By Francis G. Caffey 



SEP' IS 19*9 






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NATIONAI. UNITY 

Address before the Alumni of Howard College, 
Birmingliam,, Alabama, June 3, 1919 

By Francis G. Caffey 



Tbe fourteenth day of the present month will be 
the thirty-second anniversary of my graduation 
from Howard College. The incidents between leav- 
ing my Lowndes County home in 1883 and getting 
my degree in 1887 are vivid in my recollection. My 
mind is flooded with memories of them. 

It would be a pleasure to spend my entire allotted 
time in recounting the events of the four sessions 
at Marion. I should rejoice to describe at length 
the privilege of being a pupil of Colonel Murfee, 
Professor Dill and their faculty associates. But, 
for the purposes of this occasion, I shall refer 
generally only to conditions as they existed in my 
college days. The very greatness of the debt to the 
tutelage of those days puts upon us a special ob- 
ligation now to help in preserving the unity at- 
tained by the Nation in the World War. Of that 
unity I wish to speak. 

The intervening third of a century has wrought 
many changes, — perhaps of greater significance 
for us than those of any other equal number of 
years in our history. 

Life in the eighties was relatively simple. The 
South had not recovered from the effects of tlie 



Civil War. The people of this State were poor. 
They were still struggling to overcome the difficul- 
ties resulting from four years of strife. They were 
Nabsorbed in their individual affairs; principally in 
making a living. The attention of the country was 
concentrated on domestic concerns. The balance of 
the world seemed quite remote. 

Contrast the present ! How prodigious the shift- 
ing of the drama! Now, Alabama is prosperous; 
the United States is the richest of all countries; 
agriculture, manufacturing, commerce, invention, 
education, government and social relations have 
made enormous strides. 

Formerly our view of life could be provincial; 
now it must be extensive. Formerly we were free 
to restrict the field of our interests and our duties ; 
now we are forced to look at things not with a 
national mind only, but with an international mind 
as well. Willingly or not — whether with or with- 
out design — our country is a world power. We are 
obliged to meet the increased responsibility. How 
shall we do it? 

The greatest event between the Commencement of 
1887 and the Commencement of 1919 is the latest. 
For nearly five — particularly for the past two — 
years our energies — our very natures — ^have been so 
engrossed that we have had little time to reflect. 
With the coming of reflection it is plain that no 
civilized part of the globe can be, and no uncivilized 
part ought to be, what it was prior to August, 1914. 
The new conditions compel every country to con- 
sider its fellow-countries in much the same way 
that every inhabitant of a village is compelled by 
the mere fact of his community membership to 
consider his fellow-inhabitants of that village. 

How can the United States perform the new du- 
ties? One may not, with a feeling of assurance, be 



able to make comprehensive answer; but it is cer- 
tain tbat tbe steady, conscious cultivation of Na- 
tional Unity is necessary if we are adequately to 
do our part. 

Is the maintenance of a high degree of National 
Unity impracticable? Is it even difficult? I think 
not. We have but the very direct task of reaping 
the blessings of the war through which we have 
just passed. 

It is impossible to measure the compensations for 
the sufferings of the war. Our gains have been both 
material and spiritual. 

One chief benefit has been the halting of the mad 
rush for wealth; another, the curbing of extrava- 
gance. Economy has been somewhat reinstated. 
There is recognition anew that saving is a virtue. 
We have learned that we still have ideals ; that only 
proper occasion is needed to call them into pre- 
dominance ; that our people are capable of retaining 
a sense of gratitude after the lapse of one hundred 
and forty years. We have learned that, however 
great the diversity in the types of the population 
and in the characteristics of the various sections of 
the country, in the essentials we are substantially 
homogeneous; that even the fresh arrivals on our 
shores, for the most part, had imbibed the teachings 
of freedom; that the naturalized and the children 
of the naturalized, with rare exceptions only, took 
their places joyously in the battle for civilization 
by the side of those who had inherited the traditions 
of our Revolutionary ancestors. The lesson is that 
liberty breeds men. 

The Gentile, the Jew, the Protestant, the Cath- 
olic, the educated, the uneducated, tlie Ncav 
Englander, the Soutlierner, tliQ man from the Mid- 
dlfi West, the man from the Pacific Coast, — all have 
joined together. The result is that we knoAv each 



other better ; we have more in common. Free as we 
are in thought and speech, assured as we are of 
liberty of thought and speech, the war has taught 
us to think more alike, to feel more alike. Just as 
unity of command won the war, so the greater unity 
in the thoughts and feelings of our people brought 
by the war has increased the strength of the 
country. Continuance of unity of spirit will af- 
ford us the only chance of retaining leadership of 
the world. 

Today we honor and rejoice in Father Duffy 
just as we honor and rejoice in Corporal Manning. 
It makes no difference that one was in the Fighting 
69th New York; the other, in the Fighting 4th 
Alabama. We care not that one is a parish priest 
in a borough of New York City; the other, a far- 
mer lad in an agricultural county of Alabama. 
Both have demonstrated their worth. Both have 
lived up to the best American traditions. Both have 
set mankind an example of courage, unselfishness 
and self-sacrifice. Our debt to each is the same. 
The benefit will be lasting in proportion as we 
trea,sure it as a reason for maintaining National 
Unity. 

Whether hereafter we are to employ our national 
power in isolation or in conjunction with others, 
we shall need Father Duffys and Corporal Man- 
nings. The copartners in and the successors to 
their willingness to spend themselves for others, in 
co-operation with others for the sake of humanity, 
through all the ranks of endeavor, are the hope of 
the country, are the hope of the world. 

Another benefit from the war has been so large 
that its value is difficult to estimate. It is not an 
overstimate to say that the working of the Selec- 
tive Draft Act is the most signal, concrete illustra- 
tion since the Revolution of the capacity of the 



5 



American people for self-government. Just as the 
effect on our national consciousness was immediate, 
tlie influence should be lasting. 

Preceding the war, class feeling was growing 
apace J the power of group suggestion, without ap- 
peal to rea,son, was becoming increasingly a men- 
ace. The selection of men from every walk of life, 
without regard to social or financial relations, has 
instilled a new faith in democracy. !No one will 
be able to get the baker's son and the banker's 
son who have served together in the same enter- 
prise, on the same terms, to feel that they are 
enemies or that the social groups in which fortune 
has placed them are enemies. Class hatred thrives 
almost exclusively on ignorance of facts and con- 
sequent misunderstanding. To no single thing 
so much as to the draft is due the disintegration 
of the influence of those whose purpose has been 
to promote such hatred. 

We hear much about Bolshevism. I live in a 
district containing a population larger in number, 
more dense, more diversified, than in any other 
territory of equal area in the United States. My 
work for the past two years has dealt solely with 
the administration of public justice in that dis- 
trict. The opportunity there for the growth of 
antagonism and for retarding unity of spirit is 
perhaps greater than anywhere else in the United 
States. Yet, based on the teachings of my experi- 
ence, I have no apprehension. 

Though watchful and firm, we can afford to be 
calm while hysteria runs its course and those who 
violate the law are punished in orderly fashion. 
The places where reflection prevails need not be 
disturbed by excitement at points of congestion. 



6 

The superlieated atmosphere which, frequently ac- 
companies concentration makes propaganda ap- 
pear more potent than actually it is. The saving 
grace in America is common sense. It is char- 
acteristic of our people. It alone is sufficient safe- 
guard against the new heresy in this country. 
The return of our soldiers and sailors to civil life 
makes assurance doubly sure. 

Bolshevism is the antithesis of democracy. It 
preaches the rule of a class. In America we are 
committed to democracy. We have tested it; we 
are satisfied with it; we rejoice in it. 

That there are — perhaps always will be — just 
grounds for some discontent, no one who is can- 
did will deny. But fair contentment may be 
counted on when, after opportunity to each upon 
full information to express himself, the majority 
will prevails. The problem is one of method; it 
is to obtain unity of spirit, — an equal desire to 
treat men justly; to serve according to their 
deserts the poor and the rich, the ignorant and the 
learned, the unfortunate and the successful, 
Xational Unity will solve our difficulties. With it, 
the spectre of Bolshevism will pass, as has passed 
every other alarmist cry. 

One of the banes of American political life for 
more than fifty years has been the influence of ap- 
peals to sectional feeling. One of the consequences 
of this war to be expected is the annihilation of the 
last embers of that fire. Nearly half my life has 
been spent in the Xorth; for three-fourths of the 
years since I attained my majority the Xorth has 
been my home. I yield to no man in reverence for 
the traditions of my family and the traditions of 
Alabama, the State of my birth. Yet, I avow the 
belief that only acquaintanceship and association 



witli one's fellow-citizens in other parts of the 
country are required to make one thoroughly de- 
spise the narrowness and selfishness of sectional- 
ism. It is inconceiyable to me that the men who 
have camped together and fought side by side in 
the common cause will ever again permit political 
profit to accrue from appeals to sections of this 
republic, because of past differences, to array them- 
selves against each other. What the passing years 
and the Spanish War left uncompleted in this re- 
gard, the present war I trust has finished for all 
time. 

Though recent experiences entitle us to be 
proud, much remains to be done. The draft has 
revealed startling defects in the health and in the 
education of men of military age. The war has 
■shown an astonishing ignorance or disregard of 
our language and of our institutions among certain 
groups of the population. The disturbances in- 
evitably resulting from war require vast readjust- 
ments before the normal course of affairs is com- 
pletely resumed. The problems are social, educa- 
tional, economic and political. Solutions ought to 
be found. They will be found. 

The handicap of inferior physiques must be over- 
come. The waste of illiteracy must be eliminated. 
Incomplete assimilation into our citizenship of 
those who would make America their home is intol- 
erable. Efficiency in agriculture, in manufacture, 
in all business, is demanded by every intelligent 
conception of our task. To attain the purpose in 
view the principal needs are the preservation and 
the growth of the solidarity of the sentiment for our 
country — our great country — which the war has 
accentuated as never before. 



8 

If we but survey conditions, analyze tliem in tlie 
light of tlie teacliings of Mstory, and face tliem 
frankly, resolutely, we liave notliing to fear from 
tlie future; we can look forward buoyantly and 
confidently to wbat is to come. 

Wben tbe Articles of Confederation were 
adopted, Boston was more distant from Cbarleston 
tban today PetrogTad is from Chicago; conditions 
in tlie Green Mountains were more divergent from 
those on the James Eiver than today are the condi- 
tions in a Swiss town from those in Clanton, 
Alabama, Improvements in transportation, com- 
munication and education have made it easier to- 
day for one in a remote American village to learn 
the facts upon which to form a just opinion as to 
a world issue than in our E evolutionary period it 
was for an American statesman to learn enough to 
guide him in deciding what position he ought to 
take with respect to the deficiencies in the Articles 
of Confederation. 

The association of Americans in the struggle for 
the independence of the thirteen colonies led 
eventually to the Constitution. Participation in 
the present war has equally prepared the people 
of the world for a federation of friendship and the 
people of America for membership in that federa 
tion. 

The Constitution left some things unsettled. A 
bitter struggle followed before those things were 
settled. So, the adjustments of the Peace Confer- 
ence may fail — doubtless will fail — to prevent 
future strife; none should be so sanguine as to ex- 
pect war never to occur again. But as the wisdom 
of the Constitution preserved the Union — a result 
for which all of us are now so thankful — may we 
not hope for a like outcome from the associations 
of the World War? 



9 



If there be possibility of devising for tbe free 
peoples of tbe earth, a piece of governmental ma- 
chinery designed to assure happiness, and the 
blessings of law, order and equal justice, even 
partially so efacient as for ourselves organization 
under the Constitution of the United States has 
demonstrated itself to be, should we not be glad to 
have a share in it ; should we not cheerfully assume 
the burdens that may be entailed? Shall we make 
good the promise of American unity, sanctified by 
the blood American youths have shed in France, 
unless we carry through to that end? 

I should be very nearly hopeless of civilization if 
some deliberate effort for its preservation and 
security other than by force of arms did not result 
from the war. The horrors of the recent years 
would be the more bearable if the outcome were 
the creation of a new instrumentality, effective 
throughout the world, for keepings — even for at- 
tempting to keep — the peace; for preventing — even 
for deterring — resort to the battlefield as the 
forum for international settlements. 

There is no inconsistency between our mainte- 
nance of National Unity and our participation in a 
Society of Nations. On the contrary, if we assume 
the new responsibilities, we cannot meet them fully 
without unity in our own country; all the greater 
will be the need for the concert and the support 
which in a democracy come alone from common 
spirit among the people. 

The fostering of National Unity does not involve 
repression either of opinion or of expression of 
opinion. One of the glories of our form of govern- 
ment is that our institutions include devices for 
securing unhampered popular verdicts. Publicity 
of the facts, free assembly and fair opportunity 
are essential to the existence of genuine democracy. 



10 

Tliey are equally essential to National Unity. 
XotMng would the more surely promote the gTOwth. 
of factionalism than suppression and distrust; 
nottdng will the more surely promote tlie growtli 
of unity than unrestrained orderly expression and 
confidence. 

Unity has "brought tis victory in the war. Unity 
has dereloped the Xation irum the few thousands 
on the Atlantic seaboard to the many millions oc- 
cupying the wide stretclies from ocean to ocean. 
We should be strildng from our own hands the 
lamp of experience if hereafter we should fail to 
guide our footsteps by the great light of Xational 
Unity. 

For the present, for the immediate future, for 
the distant future, the part imposed upon the 
educated man is manifest. The possibilities for 
our own country and for the world lie far beyond 
our dreams. Let us dedicate ourselves, let each 
dedicate himself, to the cause with unselfishnness, 
with determination, with faith. In that way. and 
in that way alone, can we discharge our dtities as 
college men. By no other means can we accom- 
plish the vision of the foimders of this institution. 



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